The cool air hit me like a blast of air conditioning as I left the house. Walking up the road, drops of water dripped off the tree branches. Shawnee’s white fur on her legs was splattered with the red-brown color of the road. And everything just seemed that much greener. Even the wildflowers brilliant yellows and purples seemed that much brighter.
Pollen, be Gone
Puddles formed in the ditches along the side the road, a thick yellow coating on top. Finally, the dreaded pollen that had been wreaking havoc with my nose had been washed away. I felt invigorated wandering through the forest with the rain spattering down, especially after days of heat. The gray clouds hung overhead, with not a single ray of sunshine to be seen.
A weekend of rain would normally not be welcome by most people in other parts of the country. In fact, when I called my dad for Father’s Day, he said what many of my friends would.
“How are things in Colorado?” he asked.
“Well, it’s 55 degrees and raining.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“No, it’s a really good thing. Actually, it’s a great thing! We’ve had a fire ban up all week, and there was even a small fire started by my neighbor the beginning of the week. So any kind of rain is amazing!”
The Beauty of an Indoors Weekend
There’s nothing I wanted more than a rainy, cool weekend. To have a weekend in June, where I can actually not worry about someone starting a wildfire is a timely respite. This change in weather allowed firefighters to make major progress containing the fires that just days ago were spreading rapidly.
Selfishly, I have another reason for enjoying this weekend that is more akin to Seattle than Colorado. It’s hard to enjoy a weekend of reading, or watching a movie, when you have a perfect sunny summer day. I feel guilty if I don’t go out for a big hike or a bike ride during a sunny day.
But a weekend of rain? What else to do, except to make some tea, snuggle up on the couch, and read a good book.
Rain, Rain – Please Don’t Go Away!
When I visited the Pacific Northwest years ago, I heard a weather term I’d never heard before — “sunbreaks.” The weather forecast would read something like this:
Mostly cloudy with drizzle and an occasional sunbreak.
Sunny days were so rare, that any peak of sun had to be mentioned.
Here in Colorado, we have the opposite problem. With the Front Range averaging 300 days of sunshine, any type of precipitation falling from the sky can be few and far between. Which makes me appreciate today that much more. Perhaps we should coin “rain break” as part of our official weather forecast.
Because any glimmer of rain, much less an entire weekend, is a welcome sight indeed for those of us living in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
